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Monday, February 8, 2010

Silly Question of the Day: Are The Lakers a Better Team Without Kobe?

After tonight's impressive victory over the (29-21) San Antonio Spurs I almost forgot that Kobe wasn't playing. Let me first give the answer to this silly question, uh NO! Lakers are hands-down MUCH better when Kobe is playing. We need his presence to set the tempo, create shot opportunities, and we especially need him when he makes his shots and takes over games with his leadership...HOWEVER based on the last two games where the Lakers seem to be playing better team basketball, such a silly question arose itself from the forbidden suggestion box. To avoid disrespecting Kobe I will be using "seems" often. It seems that the ball movement has been unrecognizable with it's newly found touches. It also seems that statisticians are marking on unfamiliar territory, and the team as a whole seem to be moving faster as if unleashed after being caged for so long. The court also seems much larger and not as restricted for certain Laker players. Their outer shell left behind alongside their warmups.

Just last month, Lakers lost to Portland (Kobe went 14-37, 2-8 behind the arc) and the Lakers continued the Rose Garden Curse but for some reason the team came out victorious over the Blazers (in Portland) two nights ago without Kobe to end the (coincidental) curse. Lakers also lost to San Antonio last month but again the Kobeless Lakers beat the Spurs tonight to tie the regular season series.

Listen, I love Kobe and we are so fortunate to have the BEST NBA player in L.A. but I'm not going to sit here and watch these past couple of games and not state what needs to be stated here. It seems that the Lakers are playing much more comfortably and seem to be distributing the points quite evenly among other players that don't typically get to see no hear the sweet sound of leather hitting the nylon outside of scrimmage ball. I'm not going to put out unfavoring numbers, I will however provide the box scores from the last two games. You be the judge.

Either way, the Lakers are winning and that's what ultimately matters coming into the All-Star break. Let's just hope that this new Laker squad will close games early and not leave it up to a last second buzzer beater because without Kobe being there for the clutch, we're screwed. Look at the open 3 pointer Artest had for the win over the Grizzlies! He should've made it. Kobe set him up perfectly for the last second buzzer beater. Kobe IS THE BEST closer in the league, PERIOD!